Promoting Public-Private Partnerships in Counter-Terrorism Context

The Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) organized a panel discussion for Member States on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the counter-terrorism context to promote awareness.

UN Photo

The Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF) organized a panel discussion for Member States on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the counter-terrorism context to promote awareness. The Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy explicitly encourages such partnerships in capacity building and information exchange.

The Russian Federation, The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Norway, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) shared specific initiatives that they have undertaken to build cooperation with the private sector during the meeting on 16 January in New York.

In his opening remarks, Muhammad Rafiuddin Shah, the Officer-in-charge of the CTITF Office noted specific instances where the CTITF cooperation with the private sector has been valuable. “The CTITF working group on countering the use of the Internet for Terrorist purposes benefited from private sector expertise in the technical and legal aspects on how the internet could be used to counter terrorist narratives.”

In the case of Russia, the government has developed partnerships not only with the business community but also with the civil society to protect vulnerable targets, spread awareness and fight radicalization. For example Russia has been engaging with the Moscow State University and the People's Friendship University of Russia to exchange new ideas and expertise in countering terrorism.

“In our view private-public cooperation should not be limited to the business community but should also include non governmental organizations, media, youth associations, academic community and religious leaders”, said Alexey Yudintsev, Deputy Director in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

UNICRI, a Member of the CTITF has focused on preventive measures to protect soft targets such as tourism, recreation centers, hotels and etc. Through the “Centre on Public-Private Security Policies” established in 2007, UNICRI has endeavored to raise global awareness of the benefits of PPPs in the field of security and also promote innovative practices to enhance dialogue and cooperation between the public and private sectors.

In view of the upcoming 2014 Olympic Games in 2014 and the World Football Cup in 2016 in Brazil, UNICRI in cooperation with the Organisation of American States has developed a training programme specifically tailored for Brazil to protect vulnerable targets.

Marianna Kochubei, a senior inspector at the Anti-Terrorism Center of the Commonwealth of Independent States emphasized on the need to develop sub-regional and regional agreements to protect critical infrastructure such as energy reservoirs. “Energy corridors are the blood life of global economies. We need to establish some form of cooperation between producers and consumers to create a single energy security policy to guarantee energy security especially in Eurasia.”

Following the attack on Norway last year, Odd Berner Malme, the Police Advise at the Norwegian Mission to the United Nations highlighted his government’s effort to engage with the private sector to prevent radicalization and the misuse of commercial materials. “The attacker in Norway used a homemade bomb from commercial materials like fertilizer and drove to Utøya Island where he shot 69 people. There is a discussion in Norway on how PPPs can be enhanced to fight extremism”.